Mildly Infuriating

I can imagine a scenario where I don’t mind open offices, all it takes is picturing a job where I never have to focus and my coworkers and I never have to take part in calls or online meetings. Oh, and I’d have to like my coworkers and not enjoy the prairie dog style chats.

Sigh, I miss cubicles… At least I can turn my hearing aids off.

As someone who worked in an office with relatively low walked cubicles, it's very disruptive to work that requires a level of concentration.

I guess it might be kinda cool if you like being around people and also like your co-workers.

I might get roasted for this, but as a person who likes to work from home, I did exactly this with a friend on some holidays that both of us didn't feel the need to take PTO on (we did get to take this PTO later) and it was a blast, having a huge office just for us was really fun.

But I understand that I'm in a privileged position to make this choice and that it changes the context.

it's hilarious how the idea of open concept office is "to encourage cooperation and stuff" when in reality all that happens is that it drives people to get noise cancelling headphones so they don't hear Garry chewing gum as noisily as humanly possible, or all the "hmmmm Mmmhhmmhhh" sounds he makes while eating lunch at his desk. (Seriously, Garry, you're not making love to it.)

Or Chatty Kathy on the phone gossiping about this or that.

People are weird. the world was a better place when we didn't realize how weird.

You do know some jobs can't be done remote right?

It's possible the two people are the two with jobs that require some potential in person intervention (IT being the main case)

If something physically fails, you can't exactly fix that remotely.

The fact only 2 people remained says to me they prolly had that sort of job, or, some people genuinely prefer working in the office.

Sounds crazy but some people don't have a comfortable set up at home and find it easier to focus in the office. I've had data where construction was right outside my window at home so yeah, I went into work to have some quiet.

Most of the time I prefer WFH, for sure.

But to pretend that literally everyone can always wfh, and always wants to, is silly and you've gone too far off the other end.

And the statement at the top implies the two people chose not to take PTO anyways. Maybe they wanted to save their PTO for christmas/new years.

Stop being so judgy lol

Let's be real, though, it really is bliss when there's no one else around. Hell is other people, after all!

When I had mandatory in person office work, almost my entire team took time off, including the boss, leaving me and my mostly automated data job alone. I brought my steam deck on those days. It was bliss.

The moment I ever work in an open office is the moment I jump out the window on my first day like I'm a Chinese factory slave

I work in an office cubicle. I am constantly interrupted by coworkers asking for stuff or wanting to take about non-work related things. Or I am distracted by other co-workers who are having loud conversations within 2 meters of me.

I am probably 5x more productive at home than in this environment.

I did like working in an open office back in a previous career. I did QA and was integrated with a team of devs. It was lovely to turn to the person whose code I was testing and ask for clarification on a behavior. There really was a lot of teamwork facilitated by the lack of privacy.

The office had small rooms with doors where you could make phone calls without distracting everyone.

The company:

Nooo! We love our open concept office! ☺️

Nobody asked you. Let's see what your employees think of it

Who took the picture though? /s

I really don't mind the open office. It's a good excuse not to work hard /s

toxic corpo "culture"

At least this time it's not the company I work for.